The invention relates to an apparatus for handling sheet-like articles, in particular enclosures in an envelope-filling station of mail-processing machines,
having a base plate, over which the sheet-like articles are conveyed in a state in which they rest on the base plate,
having an actuating arrangement, which has a carrier hand which, by means of a drive mechanism of the actuating arrangement, can be moved back and forth over the base plate, parallel to the conveying direction, such that at least part of the carrier hand is guided rectilinearly over the base plate, and
having push-in fingers, which are articulated on the carrier hand and, in a guide-controlled manner, are lowered onto the base plate in the operating stroke and are raised from the base plate in the return stroke, the push-in fingers being fastened on a push-in-finger shaft which is coupled to a guide contact element.
Apparatuses of this type are disclosed, for example, in DE 195 00 746 A1. DE 41 16 708 A1 also describes a handling apparatus of the type defined above.
In known envelope-filling stations of this type, in the operating stroke, the position of the push-in fingers is determined by sliding elements at the outer ends of the push-in fingers resting in a sliding manner on the base plate or in grooves of the base plate, while the raised position of the push-in fingers, during the return stroke, is achieved in that a guide strip located beneath the guide contact element is raised for the duration of the return stroke, as a result of which, in the return stroke, the guide contact element is forced onto a route located higher than the base plate and causes the push-in-finger shaft to rotate, which has the effect of raising the push-in fingers. At the end of the return stroke, the guide contact element then drops off from the guide strip, at the rear end of the latter, and the sliding elements at the outer ends of the push-in fingers drop correspondingly onto the base plate or into the guidance grooves of the base plate.
In the case of high operating speeds, a smooth transition of the push-in fingers from the lowered position into the raised position at the end of the operating stroke, and from the raised position into the lowered position at the end of the return stroke, presents difficulties. Since these transition phases have to be carried out in fractions of a second, there may be pronounced noise development. High positive and negative accelerations may result in increased levels of wear, in particular in the region of stops which limit the respective movements. In the known design, the outer ends of the push-in fingers tend to vibrate and move jerkily from time to time.
The object of the invention is to configure an apparatus for handling sheet-like articles of the general type described in the introduction such that, even in the case of high operating speeds, greater smoothness of running of the actuating arrangement and, in particular, smooth and reliable movement of the push-in fingers are achieved without additional complicated control mechanisms having to be provided.
This object is achieved according to the invention by the features specified in claim 1.
An apparatus of the type specified here may be configured, in particular, such that a space above the base plate and beneath the actuating arrangement is kept clear of mechanisms for forward and rearward movement and for upward and downward pivoting of the push-in fingers, such that it is only the push-in fingers, during the operating stroke, which move in this space. This makes it possible for the sheet-like articles which are to be handled to be fed not just transversely with respect to the movement direction of the push-in fingers in the operating stroke and in the return stroke, but also parallel to this movement, that is to say in the direction of the operating stroke. This means that it is possible for an apparatus of the type specified here not just to be attached laterally, as a processing station, to a cyclically actuated conveying path or conveying chain, but also to be placed, as a processing station, over the ends of a conveying path or conveying chain in the manner of a portal, it being possible for said conveying path or conveying chain to be operated cyclically or else continuously.
Advantageous configurations and developments also form the subject matter of the claims following claim 1, and, without the wording thereof being repeated here, you are hereby expressly referred to the contents of these claims.